Reed Brody, the Honorary Fellow-in-Residence for this year’s Public Interest Week, discussed working high profile cases against dictators such as Augusto Pinochet, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, and Hissène Habré.

Two Penn Law students and one recent graduate were recently awarded prestigious Skadden Fellowships, and a Penn Law student was also selected for the highly coveted Marvin M. Karpatkin Fellowship from the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.

On November 14, Mark O’Brien spoke on the value of technology to at-risk communities. O’ Brien was keynote speaker for the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s 34th Annual Edward V. Sparer Symposium, titled “Law 2.0: Progress and Challenges for Justice in the Digital Age.”

A new gift from the Leo Model Foundation to the University of Pennsylvania Law School will create the Model Government and Public Affairs Initiative, a series of new programs designed to prepare students for fulfilling work in government and public policy.

On October 14, Penn Law’s Office of Career Planning and Professionalism hosted its annual 1L Summer Experience Fair. Second-year students who worked in various sectors in the legal field last summer talked with the 1Ls about their experiences and the summer job search process.

Penn Law’s first class of Catalyst Grant recipients have begun their work in the public sector, working on everything from prosecuting criminals to determining the legal status of shipwrecks. The Catalyst Grant program provides a year of support for Penn Law graduates who serve in government or conduct human rights work.

Marking a major milestone in legal education and emblematic of the service ethic at the core of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, this academic year Penn Law will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of its public interest program, featuring a year-long series of lectures, workshops, conferences focusing on the power and impacts of public service lawyering.

University of Pennsylvania Law School Dean Michael A. Fitts has been honored with the Law School’s 2014 Beacon Award, which recognizes faculty members’ contributions to pro bono and public interest service.

Third-year University of Pennsylvania Law School student Lucia Hall Seyfarth L’14 has been awarded the 2014-15 ACE Rule of Law Fellowship, given annually to a Penn Law student or recent graduate pursuing an international public-interest law career.

On February 19th, the Civil Rights Law Project hosted a panel entitled “Getting it Right: Restructuring Campus Policies on Sexual Violence.” The panel was a part of Penn Law’s Public Interest Week, showcasing the power of public interest law to effect social change.

More than two dozen second- and third-year students participating in Penn Law’s Externship Program are working this semester in government agencies and nonprofit organizations from New York, to Philadelphia, to Washington, D.C.

In October Penn Law will formally launch the innovative Visiting Jurist Program, designed to promote closer ties between eminent members of the judiciary and law students. The inaugural Penn Law Visiting Jurist will be Anthony M. Kennedy, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Professors Sarah Paoletti and Tobias Barrington Wolff received the Law School’s 2013 Beacon Award for their contributions to pro bono and public interest service, at a ceremony that also recognized more than 100 student leaders and over 50 community partners.

As part of the $100 million brain-mapping initiative announced by President Obama on Tuesday, the White House has asked the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to assist with the BRAIN initiative.

The Environmental Law Project (ELP) engages Penn Law students through student-run pro bono research projects to actively address unmet needs of environmental preservation and justice locally, regionally, and nationally through support for legislative advocacy, community lawyering, and policy research.

Penn Law has formally announced the revamping of its already generous loan repayment program to ensure that its graduates pursuing careers in public interest and public service can have significant student loan burdens eliminated.

The Penn Law Immigrant Rights Project (PLIRP) is a TPIC Pro Bono Project whose goals include providing pro bono immigration law services to the greater Philadelphia community and educating the Penn community on issues of immigration law.

A symposium on immigration advocacy and reform featuring a keynote presentation by Jose Antonio Vargas, a former Washington Post journalist who revealed his undocumented status in a widely discussed essay in The New York Times Magazine in 2011, will be the capstone event of Penn Law’s fifth annual Public Interest Week programming, March 11-15.

Catherine C. Carr L’79, a Penn Law lecturer and Executive Director of Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, has received the Andrew Hamilton Award. Marisa Gold L’13 was also honored by the Public Interest Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association.